Kay BanhamProject Manager| Barking and Dagenham CollegeEssex, United Kingdom
see below i have coped this bit out of Information Age what do you think?
do you agree that there is no such thing as an IT Project?
Furthermore, Norton says, medium businesses have the advantage over larger rivals of not being so set in their ways; executives are able to make changes to business practices and processes to ensure the success of projects. Consequently, he adds, business managers must be regarded as “equal partners” in projects, with control over a
large proportion of the budget. In any organisation, Norton argues, “there is no such thing as an IT project”, just business projects. But nowhere is this truer than in the mid-sized business.
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Evan SandersProject Manager| Health CatalystUt, United States
I believe Norton's point is that the desired end result of a project within a company always must be some type of business improvement. So even if the project is being done completely by the IT department (e.g. firewall upgrade, database upgrade), it is only useful to the company if it provides a business benefit. For example, a firewall upgrade may provide the benefit of decreasing the risk of security incidents, which in turn will protect the company's financials and public reputation. In too many cases, IT departments do not publicize these business benefits. The projects then tend to get delayed or given lower priority, and the IT department's reputation suffers because they are seen as a technical team, not as part of the business.
The point about partnering with business stakeholders is important too. In the example of the firewall upgrade, imagine the increased priority that the project could receive if somebody like the CFO were a co-sponsor. The project is then one which will more likely get completed and the IT members of the team will be more likely to get support when there are open issues.
For all projects, we will tend to get better results if we look at them from the viewpoint of the desired business results. At or before the start of the project we should ask how the project will improve the business and seek out support from the impacted business departments. If done rigorously, this approach will lead to better project selection and fewer failed projects. Saving Changes...
Dave McMillinSr. Project Manager| TEKsystemsWashington, Il, United States
I agree with Evan that each project must show business value. This is done to get approval and at the end of the project to report to upper management. The big problem is that sometimes the value to the business never gets communicated to the project team, only the tasks to complete. The worker bees build it, test it and implement it, then move on to the next project without really knowing the impact it has. Saving Changes...
Ken NixonSenior Project and Portfolio Manager| IndependentMeridian, Id, United States
Of course Norton was making a point that IT is a service and therefore any project that IT needs is to serve the Business.
Most of the projects I manage are for the Accounting service team. From an IT perspective, I call them the "Business" but they don't refer to themselves that way - the people that meet needs of outside customers are the real Business.
So, using the nomenclature of "IT Projects" is helpful when categorizing projects in your PMO. It would probably be best used when describing those entered into to meet Infrastructure type needs where your Sponsor is or works for the CIO. Since each project should have only one Project Manager, the "home department" of the PM should not determine the project classification. In many companies the PM discipline is only refined in the IT team.
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